“Even if I swear to keep my hands to myself?” I straightened and planted my fists on my hips.
A piercing trill cracked the silence. Tsunami swooped low over the treetops, golden wings slicing the sky. She banked, circling wide before crashing down into the shallows with a slap of water and spray. Warm waves surged around my calves.
I jogged forward as she stretched her neck toward me. Her muzzle bumped my chest. I nudged her aside, eyeing the gleam in her stare—shewasn’t here for me.
She cut between us, blocking Kallias from view. Her tail whipped past me. I ducked, narrowly avoiding the swipe of muscle thicker than my torso.
Tsunami lowered her head to meet his gaze, one gilded eye narrowing like she was solving a riddle. I shoved at her scaled foot, trying to urge her back into the surf. She huffed, snout twitching as she glanced at me.
“Give us space to swim,” I called, shoving again.
She grumbled, a garbled vibration deep in her throat, then sloshed to the side. Kallias lifted a hand to shade his eyes, squinting up at her while she studied him like prey.
“She doesn’t do this with my men,” he said, lowering onto the sand.
“She dominates the northern skies.” I passed him without pausing. The ocean called, warm and inviting. “You wouldn’t notice, but the riders know. She’s claimed your ship, too. She’s curious.”
I didn’t wait for a response before diving into the waves.
The water pulled and pushed around me as I cut forward. Salt burned my nose. My limbs stretched, slicing through the weightless blue. I broke the surface, tossed the wet hair from my eyes, and searched the shore.
Kallias hadn’t moved.
I swam loops in the shallows, each lap a silent invitation. He stayed rooted on land.
Wading back, I gripped my chest wrap and rose from the waves. Wetness sheeted down my skin, curling around my hips. Foam lapped at my thighs.
“Come swim with me?” I called.
His eyes tracked me, dark with hunger. “I don’t do well with deep water.”
“You can swim, though?” I flicked my hair over my shoulder, droplets spattering across the ground.
“Enough to keep breathing,” he said. Final. Closed. That door wasn’t mine to open. I sighed and walked up the shore, clutching my wrap tighter.
I flopped beside him. He bent a knee, putting distance between us like armor. Wet sand clung to my skin. I leaned back on my hands, chest lifted, chin tipped toward the sun.
“I almost drowned once.” His voice dropped low. His gaze swept over my curves, but his mind drifted elsewhere. “A river runs from Mount Dariel to thefoothills. The Velli attacked there, and I learned fast that fighting in water is a thousand times harder than on land.”
Sunlight kissed his cheekbones. He looked carved in firelight, jaw locked, throat tight. The memory didn’t sit well.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
Tsunami curled her massive body around us, resting her head beside Kallias. For a heartbeat, there was no throne. No duty. No kingdom.
Just Kallias and Nienna.
A man and a woman.
Drifting toward a future as bright as the sun.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kallias
After the signing, only three days remained until our wedding. It was rushed, far from what I wanted to give Nienna, but something nagged at me. A pressure deep behind my ribs. A weight. Radaan called me home, louder with every hour.
Someone knocked before sunrise.
